Al Pacino confirms discussions with Marvel and first trailer for Zemeckis’ The Walk

Al Pacino is perhaps the greatest actor of the past fifty years. The Oscar winning star of Scarface, Serpico, Heat, Scent of a Woman, Dog Day Afternoon, Insomnia, Carlito’s Way, Donnie Brasco and The Godfather trilogy did, earlier in the year, express interest in a collaboration with Marvel following his viewing and immediate delight in their space-set smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s now confirmed that he’s met up with Marvel’s studio head Kevin Feige about the possibility of a role in the films.

“I would imagine either there’s something he feels is right for me,” he explained. For different roles the mysterious part of Star Lord’s father is still up for grabs; hopefully he won’t get stuck as a generic villain. Other more venerable actors to take the step into the fray of Marvel’s action packed world include Anthony Hopkins in Thor, Michael Douglas in Ant-Man, Jeff Bridges in Iron Man, Tommy Lee Jones in The First Avenger and Robert Redford in The Winter Soldier. It’s no long stretch to imagine Pacino accepting such a role. The Marvel movies up for casting are Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Inhumans and The Avengers: Infinity War.

Although the story was comprehensively covered in the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire, the death defying accomplishment of tightrope walker Philippe Petit, who walked on wire from one Twin Tower to the other, will be seen on screen again in The Walk, the first trailer for which has been released. Robert Zemeckis, director of Back to the Future, Cast Away, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact and Forrest Gump, commands the cast of Joseph Gordon Levitt (Looper, Inception, Lincoln), Charlotte Le Bon (Mood Indigo, The Hundred Foot Journey), James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3, World War Z) and Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Hugo, Shutter Island).

The Walk – October 2nd 2015

The Must Sees of November 2013

This one comes a few days late but we need a round up of November’s huge releases. First up, we’ve got the new film from Stephen Frears (two time Oscar nominated director famed for The Queen and High Fidelity). Philomena is the true story of a pregnant Irish teenager who’s child was stolen by nuns and put up for adoption in America. Decades on in the present day, the old woman’s (Judi Dench – Skyfall, Shakespeare in Love, Iris) story is found by political journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan – Alan Partridge, The Look of Love, Despicable Me 2) and they set out to America to find Philomena’s son. This bitter comedy is sweeping up recognition from everywhere, BAFTAs are certain and Oscars are a possibility, and opens November 1st.

Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall and Jim Broadbent star in Closed Circuit. John Crowley is the director of this mystery thriller which sees a regular court case uncovering a huge terrorist plot (Nov 1st). Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, James Badge Dale and Paul Giamatti play characters in their response to the death of President John F Kennedy in 1963 for the new drama Parkland from director Peter Landesman (Nov 8th). Last Vegas is the new big billing comedy. The premise is four sixty something guys (played by four Oscar winners – Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Kevin Kline) hitting Vegas for the final bachelor party of their lives as the last on of them ties the knot. Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) is the director (Nov 8th).

The biggest release of the month has got to be Gravity. It’s burst into IMDB’s Top 250 films of all time and sits at about 50th. Alfonso Cauron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) is the director of what’s being praised as one of the most technically astonishing films of all time. Sandra Bullock plays Dr Ryan Stone, a medical engineer on her first trip to space. She’s on a spacestation with veteran Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) when debris crashes into them leaving them stranded and tumbling towards Earth (Nov 7th).

Kill Your Darlings is the new biography drama set in 1944. A murder draws in great Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William Burroughs (Ben Foster). Also with Dane DeHaan, Elizabeth Olsen, David Cross and director John Krokidas (Slo-Mo) (8th). Shia LaBeouf (Lawless, Transformers) is the titular character Charlie Countryman. Rupert Grint, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelson, Melissa Leo, James Buckley and John Hurt. Countryman is an American traveller who falls for a Romanian criminal. Frederick Bond is the director (Nov 8th).

The Counsellor is Ridley Scott’s new thriller. Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Javier Bardem star in this Oscar tipped feature about a lawyer getting too deep into drug trafficking (Nov 15th). Iain De Caestecker is currently starring on the small screen as one of the Agents of SHIELD. He’s also starring with Alice Englert for In Fear. Jeremy Lovering’s horror sees a young couple thrown into the tormenting of a dark forest after a night out (Nov 15th). Richard Shepard (The Matador) directs and writes his new crime filled comedy Dom Hemmingway where Jude Law has the role of the ex-con titular lead alongside Richard E. Grant and Emilia Clarke (Nov 15th) while Joseph Gordon Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, Looper) directs, writes and stars in edgy rom-com Don Jon about a regular guy struggling to maintain a happy relationship. Also with Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. Rounding off the stellar releases of November 15th is Blue is the Warmest Colour, winner of the Palme D’Or award earlier this year at the Canne Film Festival after being voted by an elite panel of judges including Steven Spielberg. This foreign language hit is from Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche and is tipped to be this year’s Amour.

Escape Plan sees the 1980s’ two greatest action stars,  Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Predator) and Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Rambo), teaming up for the first proper time, The Expendables wasn’t really about them. They play two prison experts locked away in the most secure cell on the Earth and devise a route out in this mystery thriller from director Mikael Hafstrom. Also with 50 Cent, Sam Neill and Vinnie Jones (Nov 22nd).

We now have a trio of award contenders. Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones star in The Family. Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) is the director and the story is the one of the Manzoni family, a notorious Mafia clan now hiding out in Normandy, France, but are soon noticed (Nov 22nd). A Most Wanted Man is the story of a Muslim immigrant in Hamburg caught  in the crossfire of the international war on terror. Rachel McAdams, Daniel Bruhl, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright and Phillip Seymour Hoffman all star for director Anton Corbjin, famed for The American, (Nov 22nd). Nicole Kidman is the current Oscar favourite for Grace of Monaco. It’s the true story of legendary actress Grace Kelly who, at the age of 25, has just one her first Oscar and is the rising star of the moment, that moment being 1955. But she gives up her career just as it was taking off she marries the Monacan Prince Ranier III (Tim Roth). Director Oliver Dahan explains frequently that it’s not a biography but an exploration of the reasons behind a seemingly bizarre decision (Nov 29th).

Three other films will finish our November preview. Their all likely to make great box-office hits but two of them are in contention for Oscar noms. Carrie is one of them and I reckon stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore are in the running for an Academy Award shortlist. The story, based on the Stephen king novel and Brian De Palma film, is of the titular teenage girl Carrie who finds herself with strange abilities as she enters puberty. She decides to use them to gruesome effect against her tormentors. Kimberly Pierce (Boys Don’t Cry which won Hilary Swank an Oscar) is the director (Nov 29th).

Homefront boasts an impressive cast in the form of Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth and Frank Grillo as well as screenwriter Sylvester Stallone and director Gary Fleder (The Express, Runaway Jury). A former DEA officer hopes to start a new life when he moves to a new quiet town with his young daughter but he gets on the wrong side of local meth dealer Gator and violence soon follows. We like to call it: Breaking Dad! (Nov 29th)

Destined for greatness is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the sequel to last year’s surprise sci-fi success and adaptation of the Suzanne Collins young adult novel. Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) is the director this time as Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) realises that her Hunger Games victory with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) may have sparked the ideals of revolution within the starving people of Panem. Confronted by President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), she must dampen the rebellious fire before it causes a head on collision with the Capitol. Also with Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffery Wright, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Sam Clafin, Jena Malone, Willow Shields and Phillips Seymour Hoffman (Nov 21st).

Thanks for reading the whole of this one through. It means that you now have November 2013’s releases laid out in front of you for you to pick and that you have a much longer attention span than I d

The Lone Ranger review

Director: Gore Verbinski

Starring: Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson, William Fichtner, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale

There’s no avoiding the fact that reviews and box-office for The Lone Ranger have been horrific. Although it’s now made just over it’s $215 million budget, you can’t call it a success until it’s made double that. Mainly American critics have ranted over and over about Johnny Depps’ latest Western and, while I hugely enjoyed The Lone Ranger, it’s fairly easy to see why.

In 1933, the hundred year old Comanche Tonto (Johhny Depp)  recalls the story of The Lone Ranger that took place in 1869. Violence fearing lawyer, John Reid (Armie Hammer) joins his brother (James Badge Dale) in a group of Texas Rangers that set out to find train robber Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner). A sudden ambush by Cavendish and his gang on the team kills all but one of the loyal members of the group. John joins forces with the mysterious, and possibly crazy, younger Tonto. He takes up the infamous mask and persona of The Lone Ranger and they out to get vengeance against Cavendish and businessman Latham Cole (Tom Wilkinson) who has a greater plot afoot.

The films faults only form a very small list. Many have criticised the running time of 150 minutes but that’s hardly derailed 2 and half hour hits such as The Avengers or Avatar. The key reason, and the answer as to why the films got a much more positive reception out of America, to the critical failure is because it antagonises America’s industrial founders as well as their army leaders so it’s falling short of a patriotic cowboy movie. Other good reasons could be that there’s a lack of interest for the source material seeing as the last theatrically released Lone Ranger films came out well over thirty years ago or that the film’s 2nd most famous star, Helena Bonham Carter, is limited to two scenes, one of which she only has about five lines in. But once your able to forgive the minor problems of Gore Verbinski’s production, it’s easy to enjoy this great romp of an adventure.

Johnny Depp is priceless is his new role. He’s not a convincing American Indian but brings out possibly the best on-screen sidekick for a long time. He almost deserves nominations for facial expressions alone and he delivers every gag with a brilliant straight face. Thankfully his promotion from generic sidekick to a lead of the same importance of the Lone Ranger himself is a huge bonus to the film. Armie Hammer’s Reid’s transition from terrified lawman to best shot in the West is a sudden, unexplained and unjustified but he certainly has bags of charisma. He’s an entertaining screen presence, despite being slightly overshadowed by Depp, and he can certainly act, as he proved in The Social Network. He brings a touch of humour to what could be a extraordinarily bland role.

William Fichtner’s villain, Butch Cavendish, is an excellent one: dark, unforgiving and frighteningly gruesome. At the end of the exhilaratingly tense canyon sequence, the whole audience was shocked at the loss of heart from Dan Reid, Iron Man 3’s James Badge Dale in a disappointingly small role,at Cavendish’s hands, and knife. He’s a potentially iconic villain who’s slightly put to the side for Tom Wilkinson’s fairly generic, rich baddie.

Most of the performances where up to scratch. Ruth Wilson is a great actress despite the unconvincing accent. Same to be said about Helena Bonham Carter, who’s good in a tiny role.

There’s a twenty minute sequence of the film where the  level of excitement severely drops as night falls over the silver mine but every other moment of the film is huge fun. The special effects are top notch at every point, the one exception being John and Silver the horse’s escape from the burning house. The screenwriting trio of Justin Haythe, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio brilliantly incorporate humour into the action.

It is sad to see Westerns performing so badly at the box-office these days. Cowboys and Aliens had huge stars such as Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Sam Rockwell as well as Jon Favreau, Iron Man and Iron Man 2, on directing duties plus a screenplay from Bad Robot regulars Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof but only got $10 million more than it’s $160 million budget. Jonah Hex is another obvious example. Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich, Will Arnett, Wes Bentley and Michael Fassbender all starred and yet $10 million came out of a $47 million budget. But they’re not all complete bombs these days. For every Jonah Hex there’s been a Rango, Gore Verbinski’s animated, bizzare Oscar winning triumph for the genre which grossed $245 million worldwide, or a Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s smash hit won 2 Oscars and grossed $424 million despite an unconventional 18 certificate. It’s a shame to see The Lone Ranger added to the pile of box-office bombs but that doesn’t mean there’s not fun to be had here.

The crow on Tonto’s head has to have been one of the best gag providers in recent years. Tonto is one of the key reasons as to why this film is so lovable. The final action sequence is absolutely stunning. As soon as the classic William Tell Overture kicks in, you’ll be grinning from ear to ear as the edge of seat train and brass band related mayhem ensues. The Lone Ranger does a rare thing of giving you a satisfying adventure as well as leaving an expandable story to expand on. I would happily watch a trilogy of Lone Ranger films but the biggest shame of film is that there’s no chance of that happening after the film has so far taken $217 million from a $215 million budget. It’s the 2nd huge budget Disney commercial flop in as many years after last years infamous John Carter. This will unfortunately mean that, due to both Carter and the Ranger being non-sequels from massively successful directors and incredible cast lists, we’ll just be getting franchise continuations from Disney.

I strongly encourage you to see The Lone Ranger for two reasons. 1) I want there to be a sequel. 2) It’s hugely entertaining. Johnny Depp, even if the intimidating shadow of Captain Jack Sparrow is looming over him and director Gore Verbinski, gives one of the most genuinely funny performances of the year. All Hammer, Wilson and Fichtner are excellent as is the film. Great storytelling and imagination and not for that faint of heart.

9/10

(as Silver climbs up a tree) “Something very wrong with that horse”